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The Official Game Boy Thread


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On 8/20/2021 at 6:50 PM, electricmastro said:

Fighting games tend to be dismissed on older handhelds, but I think Tamara showed that they could decently work:

 

 

Takara not only proved they worked, but they proved the Gameboy was the 8bit master of 1on1 fighting games because of the way they built them.  They didn't go for accuracy like capcom's SF2 which lacks players but works.  They went for chibi art, it allowed for smaller characters with better detail, but also allowed for more detail for the backgrounds, more characters total, more moves, more accuracy.  The Neo Geo conversions are mostly excellent, shockingly good with both samurai shodowns and also world heroes, and the real bout fatal fury special (yellow label) is insanely good too.  Also the GBC/gb hybrid transformers beast wars is insane....big roster, but 2x since they all transform and have their own second move sets so it's like a double roster.

 

 

Also... @atari2600land and @Chuck D. Head Klax is actually really great on the GB, but also, oddly, got two releases as the Japanese version is not the same as the US one for black and white.  While the US one is more arcade accurate in the way they drop, the JP one loses the angles, but has easier visuals so it's better to play, just uglier.  Then there's the GBC one, it's just solid...since it's GBC only.  I've had that one, tried the others, it just is nice.  Dr Mario also works without colors too on GB, yet someone did a 'DX' hack for it adding the NES color palette and that's nuts how nice it is (youtube it, klax too, gameboy works jeremy parish just did a video on klax old GB US/JP) last week or week before.

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My first experience w/ the gameboy was w/ the original 1989 model; I borrowed it from a friend, along w/ two games.  One of them was an rpg.  The following is an inquery; if anyone knows anything, feel free to email me. -
 
I'm trying to remember the name of a gameboy game I've played before, but I just can't find the information! If anyone wants to help, I remember some of the details:
1) It had some nordic / viking themes, esp. a death sequence where Odin revives your character and you try again
2) Your character can have three friends from school join you
3) all four characters can be created and named
a) can be human male, human female, mutant male, mutant female, baby dragon, slime ball, etc.
4) The story involves the main character's father
5) A character named Mask joins you during a part when you're in a cave, esp. when you're escaping it when it collapses
6) I got up to a point where I was in a giant's village
7) sometimes, after the battle sequence, you get a magic meatball; if you feed it to the baby dragon in the group, it randomly turns into another monster form

I hope this info helps; thanks again.
 
 
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19 hours ago, StarDragonfire12345 said:
My first experience w/ the gameboy was w/ the original 1989 model; I borrowed it from a friend, along w/ two games.  One of them was an rpg.  The following is an inquery; if anyone knows anything, feel free to email me. -
 
I'm trying to remember the name of a gameboy game I've played before, but I just can't find the information! If anyone wants to help, I remember some of the details:
1) It had some nordic / viking themes, esp. a death sequence where Odin revives your character and you try again
2) Your character can have three friends from school join you
3) all four characters can be created and named
a) can be human male, human female, mutant male, mutant female, baby dragon, slime ball, etc.
4) The story involves the main character's father
5) A character named Mask joins you during a part when you're in a cave, esp. when you're escaping it when it collapses
6) I got up to a point where I was in a giant's village
7) sometimes, after the battle sequence, you get a magic meatball; if you feed it to the baby dragon in the group, it randomly turns into another monster form

I hope this info helps; thanks again.
 
 

The Odin part tells me you're talking about Final Fantasy Legend II, although the "magic meatball" thing that turns a monster into another form is something found in the first Final Fantasy Legend.

 

EDIT: The meat is also found in Final Fantasy Legend II, apparently.

 

Edited by Pixelboy
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I had previously modded a GBC with a backlit screen, but was never 100% happy with it due to the small size of the screen (even smaller than the stock GBC screen!).  As luck would have it, FunnyPlaying released a new Game Boy Color replacement screen with a bunch of neat features somewhat recently, so I decided to order it and upgrade my GBC.

 

FunnyPlaying "Retro Pixel" IPS LCD 2.0

 

This offers a lot of neat features over the existing LCD mods out there:

  • MASSIVE screen, much larger than the stock GBC screen (though this means you have to either mod the case or buy a custom case for the screen to fit).
  • The LCD comes attached to the screen protector, so you are guaranteed to not get any dust in between the protector and LCD (this also guarantees the image on the LCD will be perfectly centered).
  • Adjustable brightness and "retro pixel" filters (no filter, scanlines, GBC-like grid).
  • The "Game Boy Color" logo below the screen lights up when the power is on, and can be customized.
  • All settings are saved when you power the system off.

 

Here is the finished product (with custom shell):
DSC_0614.thumb.JPG.19c68e637ba31a77c3f69367cddba3ad.JPG

 

This is at brightness 3/7 with the grid filter on.  You can adjust brightness by tapping an included touch sensor you install toward the top, and can switch the filter on/off by tapping and holding the same sensor.

 

The install is not difficult—assuming you purchase a customized shell; otherwise you would have to have some pretty advanced tools to carve the plastic just right.  It is 99% a drop in replacement with the custom shell, requiring you only to solder one wire from a leg on the power switch to the LCD flex cable.  Note that the leg on the power switch is REALLY SMALL and this can be quite a pain unless you've got a soldering iron with a thin tip (I do not).  That's it if you just want to replace the screen and be done with it.

 

Now you have two options.

 

The first option is installing the touch switch.  This requires soldering the touch switch to another point on the LCD flex cable.  This is an easy soldering job, so I'd recommend installing it even if you won't use any of the filters; being able to adjust the brightness is nice.

 

The second option is to install two wires from the LCD flex board to two tiny holes on the GBC board.  This allows you to use the select and start buttons to adjust the screen position and how the "GAME BOY COLOR" logo under the screen is lit up.  I skipped this, as the included screen protector and custom case basically guarantee you'll have a perfectly centered image, and I don't care about changing the color of the "GAME BOY COLOR" logo light.

 

---

 

I still think I prefer my backlit IPS LCD DMG, simply because I find it more comfortable to hold and the sound is a bit fuller.  Having said that, this is a great looking screen, and an easy install for anyone with very basic soldering skills.  Highly recommended!

Edited by newtmonkey
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OMG I am 1000% sold on that one. It looks so professional! I would easily believe it was an original release.

 

EDIT: yikes, I got the last GBA Special Edition. Their funding target is rather unambitious, and they have awfully limited reward quantities. I hope they don’t limit their success by aiming too low…

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I can give a big recommendation to GBA Mr Driller (any of them), and CT2 I understand is a wannabe (Well done) Metal Slug clone so that's a win for Neo fans.

The biggie, due to the name, it got grossly overlooked, is The Tower SP.

 

That's Yoot Saito's project Yoot Tower/Sim Tower from the early Win95 era days.  That game is a piece of art, utterly fantastic on the GBA. Given the crappy hoops needed to run the old two nearly same versions of the 25 year old PC game, I strongly suggest anyone give it a go as it's worth it...sadly not largely produced, thankfully scum having picked up on that and rammed the price into laughable levels so go for it.

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Also, never heard of Goodboy Galaxy but that looks like it could be shockingly good, and as stated already I agree it looks commercial grade quality too.

 

Wow they already blew out their goals, stupidly did very small runs of physical copies so they're long gone too on GBA and Switch.  I hope this does well and they make more copies.  I don't back KS games but damn that's tempting if it were the only way.

Edited by Tanooki
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21 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

I can give a big recommendation to GBA Mr Driller (any of them), and CT2 I understand is a wannabe (Well done) Metal Slug clone so that's a win for Neo fans.

The biggie, due to the name, it got grossly overlooked, is The Tower SP.

 

That's Yoot Saito's project Yoot Tower/Sim Tower from the early Win95 era days.  That game is a piece of art, utterly fantastic on the GBA. Given the crappy hoops needed to run the old two nearly same versions of the 25 year old PC game, I strongly suggest anyone give it a go as it's worth it...sadly not largely produced, thankfully scum having picked up on that and rammed the price into laughable levels so go for it.

Yep, Mr. Driller ends up being a hidden gem on just about any system he appears on. Also impressive how SimTower managed to get on GBA.

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1 minute ago, electricmastro said:

Yep, Mr. Driller ends up being a hidden gem on just about any system he appears on. Also impressive how SimTower managed to get on GBA.

Yeah it is, quite the surprise and it plays very well (Sim Tower.)

And you're right about Driller.  I don't have it on GBA anymore, not really entirely sure why either...but I do have the fun original one on GBC which is a treasure though sad it doesn't save scores not that it's needed.

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7 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Wow they already blew out their goals, stupidly did very small runs of physical copies so they're long gone too on GBA and Switch.  I hope this does well and they make more copies.  I don't back KS games but damn that's tempting if it were the only way.

Apparently, the publisher First Press Games will keep on selling physical releases until the end of the campaign (through their website).

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Well that's good.  I'll hope someone pushes the sales link to that when it arrives.  I'd truly be probably most interested in the GBA version over the Switch or PC, though I'd probably get the PC one in the end just for ease of use and long term usability over steam.  GBA is rock solid, won't be hard to play that for years to come.

 

@jgkspsx Not really.  Cheapest copy sold on ebay has been $50 for it new, usually $60.  That's already a $10+ savings with Deal Tavern.  Another sealed new copy sold just north of $100 to some non-researching fool too.

Edited by Tanooki
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2 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Thanks for the link, I tried the demo and liked it a lot, but the Winter 2023 release date made me hesitate a little. But I'd rather pay in advance and keep my fingers crossed than wait and pay scalpers outrageous prices two years from now, so I bit the bullet and bought a pre-order copy of the GBA version.

 

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While I do agree, the hardware is entirely not the same, it is at the same time overlapping because the GBA uses the GB/C as a co-processor in various games, not always to its benefit, but does, and not often either which is likely why not often. ;)  They're one in the same by family, probably best to leave it together because I doubt split they'd get as much traction being split.

 

Also Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was left off that list...and Tactics Ogre (Ogre Battle 2.)

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